Location: Hackney
In this post I lay out an itinerary for a ‘wine crawl’ around Hackney. This can easily be an all day event (it took us 7 hours). I wouldn’t recommend trying this with more than 6 people however, as getting a table in some places might be hard.
The crawl consists of 6 wine bars in total. Most do some food so you can snack your way through the day if you like. Alternatively, like us, you can have a burger pit stop at my favourite burger place in Hackney.
Stop 1 – Hector’s
Wine shop and wine bar. It’s small and gets very busy. It opens at 2 and that’s when we got there. By half past all tables were full, so make sure you aren’t late if you want to guarantee a spot. They have inside and outside seating.
The wines here are great, and the food is tasty too. Wines are minimum £8 a glass, so this will be the most expensive stop on the crawl. This is good because it means you are sober enough to fully appreciate the drinks! There were 4 of us when we did the crawl so it worked out better to buy a whole bottle and split between us.
This was the first stop for us, and whilst the food is great it’s quite expensive, so we chose to hold off at this stage.
Stop 2 – Weino Bib
The next stop is just over 5 minutes away. They have a decent selection of wines here, and serve carafes and half carafes too! Their selection is mostly natural wines so, if like me, you prefer your more classic styles make sure you let them know. They are always very happy to help.
They are also a deli so have a great selection of meats and cheeses and bread that you can order to snack on too.
The seating here is all inside. We had a plate of cheese and a carafe of rose (£42 in total) and were on our way.
Stop 3 – dan’s
Third on the list is dan’s, an Australian run wine bar with a slightly quirky seating arrangement on the inside with one large table through the middle, and lots of different chairs around it. They also have a few outside tables, but these can be hard to grab!
They have a menu with 2 or 3 wines of each (white, rose & red) which is constantly changing, and they often have an orange wine available too. There is also a more substantial selection if you are after a bottle. The staff are more than happy to help advise too. Wines by the glassware £6 – £8 roughly.
We bought a box of shapes, a classic Aussie snack, to share between us here.
Stop 4 – Newcomer wines
After this we headed to Newcomer wines, which is just opposite Dalston Junction station. This is a wine bar that again serves mostly natural wines, and focuses on wines from and around Austria. They are decently sized inside and have a beautiful courtyard garden at the back. It was a lovely sunny day and we got a spot out there.
We shared a bottle of light red wine which was delicious, and only cost £28. We found this to be far more economical than getting a glass each, and given how nice it was outside we were happy to sit around for a while longer.
Stop 5 – People’s Wine
Stop number 5 was People’s Wine which is about a 5 minute walk away. I would say that the decor isn’t quite as nice here, but the wines were great and the charcuterie boards were yummy and good value. By this time a fifth member of the gang had joined us. We got a seat outside and shared a bottle of orange wine, which was fun and different.
For the board, the bottle, and an extra glass of white we paid £58.
Optional food break – The Three Compasses
If you haven’t had enough food up to this point, or just need a break from wine, we recommend stopping off at The Three Compasses. This pub is just across the road from People’s Wine and, along with being a great pub, has fantastic burgers. You can go classic bacon and cheese, or more off the wall. They also have the best selection of vegan burgers I know of in London.
We went for the cheesy house burger which came to £11.
This is a great opportunity to soak up all the booze you have been drinking.
Stop 6 – Binch
Another wine shop/bar. This place is quite small and cramped, so it can be a little hard to get a space. However we were lucky and a group was just leaving as we arrived.
We ordered a bottle of classic red to finish the evening off, and this came to £40. It was very nice, but after we finished we all agreed we had had enough wine!
Summary
We had a great day and really enjoyed all the places we stopped. Feel free to remove stops off the list if it feels too much for 1 day. If you fancy cracking on after Binch then hop over to The Spurstowe Arms which is just across the road and always has a good atmosphere (be warned it is heaving at the weekend).
